Unforgettable: Matilda by Roald Dahl

I read Matilda when I was in sixth grade. I think I bought it at a book fair.

I tucked into it that night, and when I finished it the next day, I gave it to my sister (two years younger) to read. We both read it more than once. A few years later, my other sister read it for class. As she had some trouble reading, Mom often helped by reading aloud to her, and I remember when K. was reading Matilda, we took a road trip, and we all got to enjoy Mom reading Matilda out loud (I would've been 15 by then).

It takes a major talent to write books that are laugh-out-loud funny every chapter, and to make books funny for both kids and any adults who might be reading with them takes much more.

When was the last time you experienced the Trunchbull in all her horridness, with her pokey and her riding crop? Do you remember how much different the book is from the movie? Do you remember how the book ends, as opposed to how the movie ends?

And if you haven't read it, what are you waiting for? Consider this an invitation to revel with me in fits of childish giggles as Matilda befuddles the grown-ups in her life.

The Wordy Shipmates by Sarah Vowell

I was going to read The Wordy Shipmates and have a review all set to go by its release date (October).

Clearly, that didn't happen. I stopped about halfway through and determined to finish it when I was feeling more like I could give it a fairer reading.

I was originally very excited about this book. I'm fascinated and confused by Puritan theology. But it seems I was also traumatized by my junior year English teacher's presentation of the 1600's and Puritan persecution, because I kept having flashbacks of the class while I was reading this. (Very unsettling.)

This is my first experience with Sarah Vowell's work, and I am disappointed. First, the lack of chapters made the book seem unpolished and disorganized. Having no chapters also made the book seem to drag on because there weren't great, obvious stopping points.

Second, I kept getting people confused--which means I should've been keeping notes; I didn't because I thought that the people would be more definitive in my mind, but every time I came across Williams or Winthrop or Vane, I had to stop to remember which one he was. (And the two W names show up a lot.)

Last, Vowell's bitter political comments (example: "It's why in U.S. presidential elections the American people will elect a wisecracking good ol' boy who's fun in a malt shop instead of a serious thinker who actually knows some of the pompous, brainy stuff that might actually get fewer people killed.") seemed like cheap, strictly media-fed opinions. I'm not a huge fan of these particular politics, either, but I thought the snarky anti-Bush remarks cheapened her obviously hard work.

The things I liked: I laughed a lot and aside from the modern political stuff, I enjoyed her wit. I learned quite a bit. I enjoyed the last half of the book more than the first.

I'd be willing to read more of her books, but I'd be very careful about picking which one next. (Likely, I'd have to read a chapter or two before deciding.)

I'm willing to believe Vowell is a very funny, worthy writer to read more of--but I wouldn't recommend most newcomers to Vowell's work begin with The Wordy Shipmates.

For laughs, may I recommend... (another book I read a few years ago)

Everyone's posting the shortlist for the Man Booker Prize, and Bookslut posted a quote about why funny books don't win these "major" literary awards. So in an effort to lighten things up, I'm going to recommend that everyone (yes, everyone) read Will Ferguson's Happiness.

Will Ferguson is a funny and popular Canadian writer; his books even have a consistent presence on the BC Ferries gift shop bookshelves. I was introduced to Ferguson's work by the man I love, who urged me to read it because "everyone who works in publishing should." He even sent me the book, and I polished it off in a few days and, excited, passed it on to a friend working with me at the university press. She also loved it, and read it even faster than I did. (I knew she would.)

So, the book's premise is this: Someone writes a self-help book that actually works. Everyone buys it. Everyone becomes happy. The world collapses. The editor (who initially rejected the manuscript) hunts down the writer. There's some gunfire somewhere in the book. There are daisy stickers. There's a man who's ended up with his own harem. There's a trailer. A desert. New York City. People in robes. A janitor in a limo.

And it's all funny.

Weather Balloons Make Rotten Sex Toys by Annabelle du Foust

Clearly, this book is supposed to be funny in a ridiculous way. But the intent probably only makes it worse. This book had so many possibilities, and yet we're presented with a narrator who is probably at least twice as clueless as the most clueless person you know, and who claims to be a researcher, but she's incompetent. (Again, this is supposed to be funny, but really it's just annoying.)

Though the jacket blurb indicates that the book is of a less than serious nature, I would have far preferred a competent narrator who poked fun at the world of "kink" with real facts and observations.

All in all, a silly waste of time and money.